When most people look at Social Media, they see tiny ‘snippets’ of marketing – 140 characters on Twitter, a few lines on Facebook, a single image and a few hashtags on Instagram… surely it can’t take long to knock a few Social Media posts out, can it? Many people don’t realise the time that it takes to create and implement an effective Social Media Strategy for just one business, let alone multiple businesses, so here is a little insight into the day-to-day life of our wonderful Social Media Manager – hopefully, it will convince you that she doesn't just spend all her time reading amusing Facebook articles!
Job 1 – Responding to messages! If you are in control of multiple active Social Media accounts, it is likely that your customers will be receiving direct messages from potential customers on various social media platforms, possibly on a daily basis. It is often the job of the Social Media Manager to respond to messages, where appropriate or pass the messages on to the Business Owner. Platforms like Facebook now rate businesses according to how quickly they respond to messages, so the quicker you can respond to direct messages, the better!
Job 2 – Devising original and engaging content: This takes most of my time! For many of my customers, I post once per day to LinkedIn, twice per day to Facebook, and up to 7 times per day on Twitter. Each of these posts needs to be unique, engaging, and interesting to a specific Business’ target audience. I try and use a mixture of relevant news articles, ‘behind-the-scenes’ posts designed to give an idea of the real face of the company, and ‘sales-y’ type posts to keep the audience engaged.
Job 3 – Working out what is working, and what isn’t working! Obviously, if I am creating 50 unique tweets a week for a business, not all of them are going to be quite as popular as others are! It is my job to look at the statistics (either using the platforms own ‘insight’ statistics, or my own software), and work out what kind of content is doing well, and what kind of content is causing customers to ‘switch off’. Sometimes, popular content is just about being in the right place at the right time! If for example, you are able to use a hashtag that is trending during a live event (i.e. a sports event, a popular television programme), your engagement may go off the scale! My most popular tweet ever was related to BBC’s #Springwatch and received over 500 retweets.
However, if you want a ‘trending’ tweet to generate new and relevant followers, you need to ensure that the topic is related to the business you are working for – thankfully, my Springwatch tweet was about pollution and the business I was working for had a major focus on sustainability, so the tweet also generated new (and relevant) ‘likes’ and followers for the Business. It may not have been so successful had the company I was working for been a hairdressers, or café, etc.
Job 4 – Scheduling in content: Like many other people, I have a life outside of Social Media (you know – eating, sleeping, etc.!), so it’s just not feasible for me to ‘live’ post throughout the day for every business that I work for. As a result, I schedule the content for the majority of my clients up to a week in advance via a scheduling tool (like Hootsuite, etc.). As well as making life easier for me, this also enables my customers to review content prior to it being sent out, so that they can ensure they are happy with the tone, etc.
Job 5 – Images and videos: When it comes to Social Media content, the most popular and engaging content is often visual (in the form of an image or video), and as a result, much of my time is spent developing business specific and ‘branded’ images for my customers, as well as the odd video. As you would expect, these can take quite a bit of time to perfect! Ideally, Businesses want striking and relevant images that can be immediately associated with their company, so a specific colour filter may need to be applied, or text added in a specific font in order to give the image ‘brand consistency’. All I can say is thank goodness for iPhone Apps!
The five jobs listed above are all major parts of my daily work schedule, though are by no means everything! Hopefully, you will be able to see that a Social Media Manager does actually do a little more than just type ‘funny meme’s’ into Google and then post the most hilarious results… though I do like to do that occasionally for a little light relief!
If you're looking for some Social Media support for your Business, please contact CC Professional Secretarial Services today on +44 (0)7931 783395 or via email at: [email protected] for more information.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Job 1 – Responding to messages! If you are in control of multiple active Social Media accounts, it is likely that your customers will be receiving direct messages from potential customers on various social media platforms, possibly on a daily basis. It is often the job of the Social Media Manager to respond to messages, where appropriate or pass the messages on to the Business Owner. Platforms like Facebook now rate businesses according to how quickly they respond to messages, so the quicker you can respond to direct messages, the better!
Job 2 – Devising original and engaging content: This takes most of my time! For many of my customers, I post once per day to LinkedIn, twice per day to Facebook, and up to 7 times per day on Twitter. Each of these posts needs to be unique, engaging, and interesting to a specific Business’ target audience. I try and use a mixture of relevant news articles, ‘behind-the-scenes’ posts designed to give an idea of the real face of the company, and ‘sales-y’ type posts to keep the audience engaged.
Job 3 – Working out what is working, and what isn’t working! Obviously, if I am creating 50 unique tweets a week for a business, not all of them are going to be quite as popular as others are! It is my job to look at the statistics (either using the platforms own ‘insight’ statistics, or my own software), and work out what kind of content is doing well, and what kind of content is causing customers to ‘switch off’. Sometimes, popular content is just about being in the right place at the right time! If for example, you are able to use a hashtag that is trending during a live event (i.e. a sports event, a popular television programme), your engagement may go off the scale! My most popular tweet ever was related to BBC’s #Springwatch and received over 500 retweets.
However, if you want a ‘trending’ tweet to generate new and relevant followers, you need to ensure that the topic is related to the business you are working for – thankfully, my Springwatch tweet was about pollution and the business I was working for had a major focus on sustainability, so the tweet also generated new (and relevant) ‘likes’ and followers for the Business. It may not have been so successful had the company I was working for been a hairdressers, or café, etc.
Job 4 – Scheduling in content: Like many other people, I have a life outside of Social Media (you know – eating, sleeping, etc.!), so it’s just not feasible for me to ‘live’ post throughout the day for every business that I work for. As a result, I schedule the content for the majority of my clients up to a week in advance via a scheduling tool (like Hootsuite, etc.). As well as making life easier for me, this also enables my customers to review content prior to it being sent out, so that they can ensure they are happy with the tone, etc.
Job 5 – Images and videos: When it comes to Social Media content, the most popular and engaging content is often visual (in the form of an image or video), and as a result, much of my time is spent developing business specific and ‘branded’ images for my customers, as well as the odd video. As you would expect, these can take quite a bit of time to perfect! Ideally, Businesses want striking and relevant images that can be immediately associated with their company, so a specific colour filter may need to be applied, or text added in a specific font in order to give the image ‘brand consistency’. All I can say is thank goodness for iPhone Apps!
The five jobs listed above are all major parts of my daily work schedule, though are by no means everything! Hopefully, you will be able to see that a Social Media Manager does actually do a little more than just type ‘funny meme’s’ into Google and then post the most hilarious results… though I do like to do that occasionally for a little light relief!
If you're looking for some Social Media support for your Business, please contact CC Professional Secretarial Services today on +44 (0)7931 783395 or via email at: [email protected] for more information.
We look forward to hearing from you!
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